The NIGHT token, which powers Cardano’s privacy-focused Midnight network, plunged more than 43% to hit an all-time low of $0.01524. The Midnight Foundation confirmed the blockchain was not hacked, attributing the drop to approximately 2% of NIGHT’s supply being moved out of a two-year-old contract tied to Wanchain’s Cardano-to-BNB Chain bridge. On-chain analysis showed no increase in total supply. Charles Hoskinson stated the incident highlights bridge infrastructure vulnerabilities and growing risks from AI-powered attack tools. The token has partially recovered but remains down 27% over 24 hours and has erased all gains from the last year.
The NIGHT token, associated with Cardano’s privacy-focused Midnight network, fell more than 43% earlier today to reach an all-time low of $0.01524. The Midnight Foundation stated that the price drop occurred after roughly 2% of NIGHT’s supply was moved out of a two-year-old contract linked to Wanchain’s Cardano-to-BNB Chain bridge.
Independent on-chain researcher Paul was among the first to notice the withdrawal. He noted that between 14:46 and 14:55 UTC on Monday, approximately 515 million NIGHT tokens had been withdrawn from a contract identified as Wanchain’s Cardano-side bridge lock address, which backs the Wanchain-wrapped NIGHT on BNB Chain.
Around 290 million tokens were then sold across decentralized exchanges, sending the price down, while another 200 million were transferred to a second wallet. Paul stated that the total NIGHT supply did not change, meaning no new tokens had been minted.
The Midnight Foundation said the available information pointed to a cross-chain bridge issue and not a problem with the Midnight network. In a second statement, the organization confirmed that Midnight’s protocol, validator network, consensus mechanism, and core infrastructure were all operating normally.
Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson stated that the problem came from one of the four components in Wanchain’s bridge architecture. He noted that bridge infrastructure is one of the weakest points in crypto because it depends on trust assumptions outside the underlying blockchain.
Hoskinson also warned that the industry needs to be more vigilant given how fast AI tools can now find such flaws. The token was trading more than 28% above its all-time low at the time of writing but remained 27% lower over 24 hours and about 34% below where it stood a week ago.
